The Houston Astros have had a great overall season. Going 101-61 and winning the American League West, as well as being the American League Champions. It would have been a great season regardless of the outcome of the World Series, but winning their first World Series win in franchise history, really completed the season for the team, and for the city of Houston.
The fact that it was the first World Series in their franchise’s history made being the champions of baseball extremely exciting, but that is not even the best storyline. After Hurricane Harvey sweeping through and destroying Houston in the middle of their season, there was a lot more the Astros were playing for than just baseball.
They were playing for the entire city of Houston. Baseball teams and sports teams everywhere claim all the time that they are playing for their city and to represent where they are from and trying to make them proud. The Astros really were playing for Houston though, ever since Hurricane Harvey, they had been playing for Houston, dedicating their season to the city. Trying to give Houston something to cheer for, something to be happy about in the midst of the rebuild from the tragic storm.
Between late August and early September is when Harvey hit Houston the hardest. Two feet of rainfall hit Houston in the first 24 hours of the storm. This massive rainfall was accompanied by wind gusts of up to 130 miles per hour, but consistently around 70 miles per hour.
After everything, it is believed that Texas alone is going to need about $125 billion to recover from all of the damage done. Most everyone in Houston was affected by this tragic storm, and the Houston Astros were no different. They were forced to play "home games" at other stadiums during the storm. Just playing games during this horrible time, wondering what is happening to their homes and families would be tragic enough.
It is amazing to me what the Astros did during this horrible time and how they continued to focus on baseball and playing their best baseball to finish out the season strong in order to reach the postseason.
Not only did they play great baseball and embrace the city of Houston and playing for them during this horrible time, they started fundraisers for the city through playing baseball. They put patches on their jerseys that say “Houston Strong” and made t-shirts, sweatshirts, and all of the other gear they could. They are selling this merchandise that says “Houston Strong” on it and all of the proceeds are going to relief for Hurricane Harvey.
The Houston Astros winning the World Series was an amazing thing for the city of Houston to hang their hat on and cheer for. It put a close to their wonderful season and helped sidetrack people’s minds from their everyday situation and problems they now have to deal with because of this hurricane. This World Series championship is something that can never be taken away from them like so much was by the hurricane.
The hurricane story aside, this is also the first World Series championship win for the Houston Astro franchise. Taking nothing away from the Dodgers, a World Series championship is always special and is the goal for every team at the beginning of each year, but they have won six in their history. This being the first one for the Astros is a huge moment for their franchise, and their city.
The young talent and older leaders the Astros had were the perfect combination for a championship run and in this amazing seven game World Series, brought home their first championship for the city of Houston.
